


hand in unlovable hand

by nifeandaccurate (12AM)



Category: Inception (2010)
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Gen, M/M, Mild Language, Pre-Canon, warning for vomiting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-04
Updated: 2016-01-04
Packaged: 2018-05-11 19:29:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 737
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5639278
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/12AM/pseuds/nifeandaccurate
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>On the run and go, this is Arthur and Cobb. This is how it all ends and begins again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	hand in unlovable hand

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted [here](http://nifeandaccurate.tumblr.com/post/125005485865/cobbarthur-things-you-said-while-we-were) for the prompt "Cobb/Arthur, things you said while we were driving" by katiewont.

 

Arthur wakes up to the sound of Dom pulling over on the side of a dirt road and opening the door and vomiting outside. He wordlessly hands Dom a bottle of water once he’s stopped heaving.

“You can’t keep going on like this,” he says quietly.

Dom says nothing and starts driving again.

They’re on their way to Berlin, to meet a man who says he can put Dom in touch with lawyers who’ll take on his case. There’s a silver briefcase underneath the driver’s seat and it’s burning a hole in Arthur’s consciousness. He doesn’t ask how Dom got it and he doesn’t ask any questions at all. There’s a pounding behind his left eye that’s been there for three days and he doesn’t know how long they’ll have to keep running.

He remembers on the night that Mal died, Dom showed up on his doorstep, eyes blown wide and panicked, just released from police custody. He stammered out the news with shaking hands and spent the night on Arthur’s couch. As soon as Dom fell asleep, Arthur spent the rest of the night getting quietly shitfaced, muffling the sound of his crying as to not wake him. The next morning, Arthur walked into his living room and Dom was gone.

The next time he saw him, it was weeks later, after Dom’s lawyer gave him the ultimatum. Dom showed up with a hastily packed suitcase and told Arthur that he was on his way to the airport and he didn’t know what to do anymore. Fifteen minutes later, Arthur was in the car with Dom, headed off somewhere he didn’t know.

Watching the streetlights pass them by, Arthur swallows down the questions.

“When are you going to tell me what happened?”

(“Please, Dom, just tell me. I loved her too.”)

“When will this end?”

(“God, Dom, think of your children. What’s going to happen to them?”)

When they get to their destination five hours later, Arthur stands wide-eyed as a man tells them about a job he has for them, something in-and-out, a simple extraction. Dom glances at him once, apologetic, and proceeds to accept the job. He introduces Arthur as his point man and he has to swallow the bile rising up his throat before he can smile and shake the man’s hand.

The moment they leave, Arthur turns to Dom, furious. He bites his tongue to stop himself from yelling.

Dom raises his hands, pleading, “Please, Arthur, I need money for the lawyers and there’s nothing else I can do. I promise, this is safe.”

“Dom, this isn’t about that. Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I just— I thought— I didn’t know what else to do.”

Dom doesn’t say what Arthur knows he’s thinking, that Arthur had burned his bridges with Dreamshare long ago, when he left the military with a gun in one hand and a stolen PASIV in another. That he wouldn’t have agreed to this if he had a choice.

Arthur scrubs a hand across his face. “I  _left the country_ for you. Look, if you keep something like this a secret from me again, I’m leaving. I can’t stay with you if you do this sort of shit, okay?”

 

There was a time when Arthur would have agreed to anything, back when he believed that he and Dom could take on the world together. Then came wife and baby and another PASIV, news that the academics were stepping foot into dreamshare, that they believed they could do good with something that tore Arthur’s life apart.

And Dom had come to him, wringing his hands, telling him that he was going to be part of the dreamshare experiments, and wouldn’t Arthur help them?

Arthur had looked back, betrayed. “Dom, I told you what happened in the military. What makes you think that you won’t make the same mistakes?”

“It won’t be the same—”

“Why are you doing this? You have a wife, a family—”

“Mal’s coming too.”

Arthur had slammed the door shut and buried his face in his hands. Cobb had tried calling him and Arthur ignored him until he stopped calling.

 

And here they are, years later.

Cobb says softly, “If Mal were here—”

“No,” Arthur grits out, “You don’t get to use her like this. Don’t you dare try guilting me into this.”

Cobb says nothing.

“Give me some time to think,” Arthur says, and he leaves.

 


End file.
